The Rills

Previous Reading and Are You Listening? Festivals guests return to Reading.

If you can take the band out of Lincoln, then you can’t take the keen eye for wayward characters and hometown anti-heroes out of the band, and nor should you want to. Having spent the past 18 limbo months cultivating a fervent online following (their joke-filled TikTok currently stands at a not-too-shabby 4 million likes), now The Rills – vocalist/ guitarist Mitchell Spencer, bassist Callum Warner-Webb and drummer Mason Cassar – are ready to pick up that mantle and run with it.

Influenced by the broad-ranging but energy-packed punk and alternative bands of the South London scene they’d been submerging themselves in, The Rills 2.0 set to rid their music of any excess fat, channelling the visceral quiet-loud dynamics of long term loves Pixies, and incorporating muscular drums and pointed rhythms into a palette that leaves nowhere to hide.

The trio have been Championed by BBC Introducing as a keen one to watch with the band earning a spot on BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend. They are also signed to tastemaker label Nice Swan (home to early releases from Sports Team, FUR, Feet and more).

• special guests (TBA)